Venice, Please disturb 2008 – The Veneto rich of creative contents: Best Practice Example

A famous creative expert said: “It is worth point out that mapping the creative industries is not an exact science. The definition of what is inside or outside of the creative industries is still evolving, allied to the many and varied ways of collecting information” (A.M.)

Hence, following this creative “route”, due to the complexity of the area, Fuoribiennale, [AM: IT'S ALWAYS WORTH ADDING A HYPERLINK TO THIS KIND OF REFERENCE] member of the Local Support Group (representing the Venetian internal and external expertise and interest and leaded by the Chamber of Commerce of Venice), supported by a network of institution composed by the Veneto Region and the participation of the Chamber of Commerce, published a mapping which shows an extraordinary quality of the local/regional network in terms of creativity, culture, economy and society.

This is a step which has taken place prior to the CITIES map, obtained by the surveys prepared for the firms and the professionals who are dealing with the creative sectors, where are involved press agents, pr consultants’ associations, architects’ associations, industrial designers’ associations’ and journalists.

The mapping, an ongoing process of knowledge, visualizes the City of Venice as part of a big metropolis, such as Veneto could be portrayed, which is full of protagonists, who distinguish this area of a high level of creativity.

The publication is called Please Disturb because the several identities who has been defining and modelling the creative area need to be put in contact by leading institutions, as the Chamber of Commerce of Venice is used to.

[AM: DO YOU HAVE A LINK TO THIS DOCUMENT?]

a) What is the nature of the intervention?

The Veneto Region and, particularly, the Venice land has produced in the last decades continuously culture as economy but hasn’t be able to disseminate and to communicate its endless network of knowledge.

The pilot project Please Disturb reveals finally an area full of experience which is built daily under the sign of contemporary use of diverse languages as art, architecture, design, fashion, innovative production, theatre, dance, cinema or literature.

Many recent studies have shown that the cultural and creative industries represents highly innovative companies with a great economy potential and are one of Europe’s most dynamic sectors, contributing around 2,6% to the EU GDP, with a high growth potential, and providing quality jobs to around 5 million people across EU-27[1].

Hereby mapping we want to underline the higher level of creativity and innovation, renovation and culture present in a territory which is realizing that obtaining a better and more conscious quality of life pass through an increased capacity for experimenting and innovating processes and a rise in the cultural and creative sector[2].

The goal of this project is to look inside the territory discovering things which maybe it does not even imagine having, getting a sense of its role as an incubator of ideas, plans and real structures, new languages, events and cultural cross-over, unique places where pattern free thoughts can be shaped.

[AM: WHO WAS THE AUDIENCE OF THE REPORT? - IN WHAT FORMS DID YOU DISSEMINATE THE INFORMATION? HOW DID YOU USE THE REPORT?]

b) What is the effect of the intervention?

The objective of the mapping is let the Venetian entrepreneurs involved in the new dawn of the Veneto entrepreneurship. Indeed, after a difficult stage of reconstruction, the economies of Veneto and, in particular, the one of the province of Venice are experiencing an renewal phase which allows a look at the future with optimism and a determination which was hard to imagine years earlier.

Of course the most dynamic companies redefined by a nature which is ever less industrial and ever more based on the service-sector. In fact, the importance of manufacturing is diminishing, whilst key factor as research, design and communication are on the rise. The leading companies on the territory have grown and shown that they are able to match technology and aesthetic sense, flexibility and attention to the real demands of the market. [AM: COULD YOU SAY A LITTLE ABOUT THE "NON-CREATIVE" INDUSTRIES THAT DOMINATE IN THIS AREA - WHICH SECTORS THEY ARE. THIS WILL ADD CONTEXT TO THIS SECTION]

<p style="text-align:justify">But to what extent these companies are able to understand the creative and cultural market and which is the degree of cooperation among companies, firms, institutional and financial actors?

<p style="text-align:justify">Of course, the Venetian entrepreneurs’ background is getting out from the previous air of cynical pragmatism of some years ago, outclassed by a sparkling atmosphere even if it is in an embryonic step. More and more entrepreneurs are living art exhibitions and openings, they are taking parts in the debates on currents events. The warehouses, that have characterized the entrepreneurial area of our province, are getting an important matter of discussion over the metropolitan-scale urban policies. These infrastructures could be the places where young creative people and new creative industries might merge. Places for youths with a new breeding ground who have cultivated their passion (e.g design, architecture, art) abroad representing the avant-garde of a new wave that can transform Venice and its land into a workshop wit a new way to do business.

<p style="text-align:justify">This mapping has the goal to find the characters of the transforming actors and to let everybody know who is changing the territory in a more creative and cultural way. Obviously, the change of our economic system is not only up to them, but it depends on the ability of the institutions to contribute to a new cultural sensibility[3]. The pathway to follow up is to start a path among all the economic actors of the territory in order to cerate a network where creative SMEs, universities and public and private institutions realize an agreement with the objective of making more strategic use of current and planned initiatives in support of CCIs.

<p style="text-align:justify">c) What advice would you give others?

<p style="text-align:justify">We have to face the critical period that the European market, along with the negative world situation, is handling through the innovation challenge. But what does “innovation way” mean?

<p style="text-align:justify">Hereby we suggest to take in consideration not only the technical side of the question, but to proceed through a holistic approach in supporting business[4]. The wide concept of innovation is combining technological, social, political and cultural issues. [AM: VERY INTERESTING - A LITTLE MORE DETAIL HERE PLEASE]

<p style="text-align:justify">This mapping has emphasized the importance of creativity into the Venetian industrial sector which has been always deemed only under the manufacturing aspect.

<p style="text-align:justify">Up to now, we are still collaborating with the Veneto Region and Fuoribiennale association in order to sustain all the projects leaded by each member of our Local Support Group (Veneto Region, Fuoribiennale, Iuav and Cà Foscari Universities) because each of these considers important every aspect of the different levels of involvement of the creative sector.

<p style="text-align:justify">[1] Study on the economy of culture in Europe, conducted by KEA for the European Commission, 2006, Commission Staff Working Document “Challenges for EU support to innovation services – Fostering new markets and jobs through innovation – SEC(2009) 1195 and UNCTAD (2008) report on “Creative Economy – the Challenge of Assessing the Creative Economy – towards informed policy-making” [2] Green Paper of the European Commission “Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries” COM(2010) 183 final.

[3] Ibidem.

[4] The Amsterdam Declaration addressed to regional, National and European policy-makers and adopted by the participants of the workshop “Towards a Pan-European initiative in support of creative industries in Europe” organised by the European Commission, Amsterdam, 05th February 2010.